My recent commentary, "What
part of ‘illegal’ don’t Americans understand?", generated
a lot of flack. Several responses called me a bigot. Others called
me a Nazi. Most of the negative comments parroted the pro-amnesty
party line that says illegal aliens are really just hard working,
honest folks looking for a better life, simply taking jobs that Americans
just won’t do.

One comment accused me of knowing
nothing about the issue since I’ve never had to employ or deal with
the issue. This writer was way off the mark because I recently owned
a company that employed more than 40 Hispanic immigrants and I learned
first hand about their honesty and work ethic.

All of my detractors missed the
point. It is illegal to sneak across our borders and there are laws
that say so. Let me share two excerpts from just a few of the letters
I received from Hispanic-Americans on the issue. These are people
who live daily on the front lines with the illegal alien invasion.

"This is one of the best articles
on the Issue I have ever read. Thank you for enlightening my eyes
to this great reality. I am originally from Brazil and have gone through
arduous but fructiferous path in my legalization. By God's grace I
married a beautiful American who has made my process easier, but no
less expensive. I have paid over $1,000 and so far I am still 7 months
from receiving my green card and 3 years from becoming a citizen.
But Tom, I tell you it is all worth it! To become a citizen of this
great nation I would do anything within legal boundaries."

"To allow millions of 'illegal
immigrants' to enter this country is to spit on my face and tell me
that all I have gone through in these last 4 years is a worthless
waste of time. I will continue to proclaim the sovereignty of this
great nation in which, by God's grace, I intend to be a part of."

The Bush Administration has proposed
its "guest worker" amnesty program in order to court the
Hispanic vote. The effort will backfire because illegals will never
come to the Republican Party. It is the legal Hispanic immigrants
like those who wrote to me who would naturally vote for President
Bush but they too will turn away, outraged by the Republican disregard
for their plight.

Laws make a nation by securing
property and our way of life. Ignoring those laws for the price of
a few votes creates an outlaw state. Those that have come here legally
understand that fact, why doesn't President Bush?

Immigration issues are generating
an internal war within the famed Sierra Club. With the election of
its Board of Directors coming in April, the Sierra Club is fighting
a two-front war from within as activists from its right wing and left
wing seek to take control. It’s developing into a war for the very
soul of the nation’s largest environmental activist group.

From the right, activists seek
to change the organization's direction on immigration policy. Currently,
the Sierra Club supports open borders to allow the flood of illegals
into the United States. The group’s rational is that aliens from poor
countries would do less damage to the environment here because the
US can better cope with pollution. Therefore, says official Sierra
Club policy, let them come. Never mind the cost to taxpayers.

Meanwhile, the Green “Sustainable
Development” policy is enforcing "Smart Growth"; regulations
on American cities, stopping development, controlling water use, and
forcing Americans out of their cars in the name of a population explosion
that exists only because of an open border policy! Now, some members
of the Sierra Club have reasoned that support for such an immigration
policy should end in order to protect the US environment.

Those members opposing the current
Sierra Club leadership have now been labeled "extremists"
that advocate the "greening of hate." Thus, according to
current Sierra Club leaders, you are a hate monger and a racist if
you support national sovereignty or protected borders designed to
keep out law-breakers!

From the Sierra Club's left---if
such a thing is possible---comes another takeover effort by a real
extremist named Paul Watson. He was a co-founder of Greenpeace who
was later kicked out for endorsing increasingly violent tactics. Watson
founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an eco-terror group
that sails the seas armed with AK-47's in search of fishing boats
to ram and sink. He has openly claimed credit for sinking ten fishing
ships.

Only a few years ago, reportedly
Watson attempted to obtain a submarine that could lurk undetected
under the water ready to sink unsuspecting whalers and fishing ships.
Watson claims to have invented tree spiking as a tactic to stop the
cutting of trees in the nation's forests. Says Watson "there's
nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win."

Watson has declared his intention
to take over the Sierra Club and transform it into an animal rights
organization that takes a strong stance against hunting and fishing.
It's interesting to note that the Sierra Club leadership has not reacted
with nearly the alarm to the possible takeover by a known terror advocate
like Watson as they have against those who simply want to keep illegal
aliens out of our nation. That fact alone says a lot about the true
soul of the Sierra Club, no matter who’s in charge.

Does it matter who runs the Sierra
Club? You bet is does! The organization has worked for years to impose
strict rules on developing private and public lands in the name of
protecting endangered species. Science and reason have had little
to do with the outcome. With the power to file lawsuits and intimidate
government bodies at every level, the Sierra Club dictates have now
largely become government policies. Now they are reaping the fruits
of their labor.

Just days after President Bush
announced his "guest-worker" program, the number of illegals
crossing the border increased dramatically. Apprehension of illegals
in the San Diego area alone has since risen threefold. Of course,
the Bush Administration argues that there is no connection between
the two events.

Meanwhile, in the name of protecting
national security, the Department of Homeland Security has initiated
efforts to fortify heavy traffic sections of the Mexican border to
try to slow the illegals from getting through. Fencing along nine
miles of a key section of the border has been completed. The remaining
five miles, including filling a half-mile of "Smugglers Gulch"
to construct a road, remain in limbo. The new road would be used for
border patrols, and maintenance, lights, sensors and cameras. The
Border Patrol has already reported the finished section has made a
major reduction in illegals getting through the area.

However, those efforts have been
stopped by the California Coastal Commission, which says the new defenses
would endanger the habitat of several rare birds. The Commission's
biological assessment said the project would "harass" one
pair of least Bell's vireos and a pair of Southwestern flycatchers.
Three gnatcatchers would also be "harassed" along with several
maritime chaparral on nearly fifty acres of land. Therefore, the government's
efforts to finalize the project to secure a major area of our borders
is denied.

There's no report yet on the impact
from the flying feet of thousands of illegal immigrants as they race
over the gnatcatchers nest. But then, such a report wouldn't be politically
correct, would it? The Sierra Club must be proud of the impact its
policies are having on the quality of life for all Americans.

Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese
Report and president of the American Policy Center, an activist, grassroots
think tank headquartered in Warrenton, VA. The Center maintains an Internet
site at www.americanpolicy.org.
E-Mail: apc@americanpolicy.org